Robinson: 'I have faith in Hodgson'

20 February 2005 11:22am

England captain Jason Robinson hailed Charlie Hodgson as "one of the best fly-halves in the world" after the Sale stand-off led his side to a convincing 19-10 Premiership win over Leeds Tykes on Friday night.

Hodgson kicked four out of five attempts at goal, as well as slotting a neat dropped goal, as he grabbed a personal points haul of 14.

It was the perfect way for Hodgson to respond to his critics after his Twickenham nightmare against France last Sunday, when he missed three critical penalties and a dropped goal attempt in the dying minutes of the game.

Hodgson has even been subjected to hate mail by some supposed fans, and his French director of rugby at Sale, Philippe Saint Andre, earlier described him as having had "an extremely difficult week."

There is no doubt that some of the criticism of Hodgson's performance in the 18-17 defeat to France has been way over the top - Olly Barkley also missed three kicks after all - and Robinson was not surprised to see the 24-year-old respond in such a positive manner.

Robinson said: "Everything has been blown out of proportion with regard to Charlie, to be honest.

"All he's done is miss a few kicks and all of a sudden he's a villain. Charlie is a very talented player and he's one of the best 10s in this country, if not in the world.

"He missed a couple of kicks last week but tonight he's shown just how good he is, and I for one have every confidence in him.

"I'm sure he'll do well for England in the future."

While Robinson accepts that losing the opening two RBS 6 Nations games has been "disappointing" he insists that he is still enjoying playing for and captaining his country.

"Obviously it's disappointing to lose, we don't go out there to lose, but we have to take it on the chin," Robinson said.

"We've got to keep working hard and hopefully we'll get a result against Ireland."